Customer Reviews

Bloom County Babylon: Five Years of Basic Naughtiness

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Buyer beware: the editorial review states that this book contains eighty full-color pages, but it doesn't. It contains eighty pages that obviously were at one time or another in color, but which are now a messy conglomeration of grays and whites, much like something you'd expect to see coming out of a low-grade fax machine.

Many years ago, I read another copy of this book that did, in fact, contain eighty full-color pages, so I know the pages were in color at some point. However, the only colors on the book I received from Amazon.com are on the front and back covers.

Unlike most "coffee-table" retrospective books, which consist mainly of collected strips already reprinted in other volumes, "Bloom County Babylon" is something more. While there are several strips here that appeared in earlier collections, over 50% of the book is material never published in book form before or since. The very earliest days of the strip (with "The Major," Milo's grandfather, as the main character) appear here, just to show you how far the strip had progressed. Also, the year 1985 is recounted, including the complete run of strips that trace Opus and Cutter John's ill-fated balloon ride to Washington, Opus's subsequent return with amnesia, and Bill the Cat being exposed as a Communist spy. The volume also includes "The Great LaRouche Toad-Frog Masacree," a great prose story ostensibly written by an adult Binkley in that "Lake Wobegon" style. All in all, this is a great book to add to your Bloom County collection, provided you can find it.

This book is an overview of the first five years of the strip, ranging from the early strips in which the focus is mostly on Milo, through the introductions of Binkley, Bobbi, Cutter John, Opus, Oliver Wendell Jones, Steve Dallas, and finally, Bill The Cat. Personally, I've always had a preference for the early, pre-Bill The Cat strips; I could deal with the silliness inherent in Opus and Oliver's anthropomorphic computer, but Bill just seemed one step over the line. But I know that he's very popular, and he's here, too. There are a few strips here that were reprinted from the previous three collections, but most of this material is NOT reprints. Of course, much of the humor will be completely incomprehensible to anyone who wasn't politically aware during the '80s, but I suspect that even for such a (hopefully) young person, there's plenty here to enjoy.

Remember when we were all tempted to vote for Bill & Opus? Some folks actually did, you know. Do you remember when "Billy and the Boingers" became "Deathtongue"?

I really miss Bloom County. It was a way of life, a uniquely 1980's perspective on our country that will never come again. The brilliance of idea, the sheer glee of Breathed's word choices, and the happy, bouncy parallel universe his characters all boinged around in are unforgettable.

This book is the equal of all the others, though it is longer. The first few characters and situations show that Breathed has not yet found his voice-- but once he does, look out, world!

My apologies, on behalf of the company for which I work (I'm sitting on the print floor as I type this!), for being forced to print this book without Breathed's color. I look through our print-on-demand rendition and I see clearly how much has been lost. I agree that it is not fair, but you must understand: had it not been done this way, the street price would have been ridiculous. Perhaps you will agree that it is better that the book never go out of print and stay inexpensive, rather than be forgotten and unread in color.

Despite what the item description says, there are no color pages in this cheap reprinting. The pages are printed only in black and white, and are printed in very poor quality. What a shame, because the book itself is fantastic. I have an original printing of this book and love it. I ordered this reprint as a gift and had to return it because of the poor print quality. I wish I had noticed the other reviews about this problem (listed below) before I wasted my time and money!

Terrific compilation of Berke Breathed's totally original comic strip which managed to comment on issues of the 80's without alienating anyone due to Breathed's wryly lovable character Opus. Breathed had a sense of humor unlike any other cartoonist - many times his humor stemmed just from the ludicrous situations his imagination devised or from the drawings themselves. I agree that the printing of this particular edition could be better, but if you're a Bloom County/Outland fan, don't let that deter you. This is an essential for the Bloom County collector.

This book provides a worthy overview of the first five years of Breathed's Bloom County comic strip. Some of the material was previously published elsewhere, but this isn't a merely self-congradulatory coffee-table book, there's new material in here that's found nowhere else. You are able to witness Breathed's maturation as an artist and writer, most obviously pointed up in the increasing sophistication in the way he draws his characters, and in the manner in which he drifts away from aping "Doonesbury," a comic that, like Bloom County, would do well to retire while it's still worth reading. Not unimpeachable, but surely worth reading.

Where have you gone, Opus? We need you now more than ever. I just checked this out again from my shelf, and after Sept. 11, I sure could use a laugh. Opus and company never disappoint. Along with the Far Side, Doonesbury, and Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County led the "modern" period of comic strips out of the Family Circus and Apartment 3-G hell that we have unfortunately now returned to...

Bloom County created an entire world full of funny, amazing and outrageous characters that stand the test of time and break out of the monotony of the vast majority of other comics. And, by the way, it was also the best drawn comic strip ever, IMHO.

It's a shame that most of these books are out of print, with only this book still hanging around. If you want to check out a real comic, get this book!

Bloom County is on my short list of all-time favorite comics. The original form, before short-lived "Outland" or the current "Opus", is long gone, though. Picking up this book was a wonderful piece of nostlagia.

The series peaked some time in the early 80s, and "Babylon" offers a sample of that time. I had forgotten how topical it was, full of references to then-current supermodels, presidents, movies, and sitcoms. Despite that, much of the humor has aged well. Milo's anxiety closet, for example, never needs to end. Various bogey-men (and -women) will reside there for their times, and move on. The anxiety will always be there, however, no matter how silly it looks to everyone else.

Even a book this size can't capture every strip in the five years (82-6) that it covers. That means that some of my favorite characters, like winsome Pistachio, barely even had cameo appearances. I'll take what I can get, though, and this is a pleasant sample.

If you ever liked any strip comic, you liked Bloom County or will like it. Maybe the 80s were before your time, but the characters will still look right up to date. Enjoy!

//wiredweird

For the love of wonderful things, seems to always come when those wonderful things are in short supply. And so it was with Berke Breathed's Bloom County. There simply isn't enough out there. In this collection, the first five creative wacky years of Breathed's Bloom Country are captured showing Opus appearing for the first time alongside a Hare Krishna's...something is lost in translation though into Penguin-speak, "Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts." And so it is with Breathed's Bloom County.

Color plates are interspersed ever so often throughout the book. The black and white really isn't a detractor though because Breathed's off the cuff semi-liberal tongue in cheek anything goes alternate reality humor takes center stage. There is Milo's Meadow where philosophy rules the day and Binkley chokes on the headlines screaming, "The Nicaraguan Contras are the moral equivalent of our founding fathers;" remember that was the 80's. Like David Lee Roth Van Halen, Northern Exposure, and the Bengal Tiger, it's too bad Bloom Country has gone the way of the Dodo, or flying penguins for that matter. All in all it's a wonderful collection; it's just too bad there's not more of it.